Are We Currently Witnessing A Resurgence Of Anti-Semitism? (Quora)

Michael Laitman, On Quora: “Are we currently witnessing a resurgence of anti-Semitism?“

Yes. We see that throughout history, there are periods where the hatred of the nations of the world toward the Jews rises and falls. Moreover, such hatred is distinct to Jews, and not to Arabs or other nations, and you could say that Jewish-directed hatred specifically has risen and fallen multiple times over 1,000s of years. Therefore, many have researched anti-Semitism but no one knows its causal foundation and how to solve it, and so it remains a problem.

The wisdom of Kabbalah explains the reason for anti-Semitism and why it rises and falls throughout history. According to Kabbalah, anti-Semitism depends solely on the Jewish people: To the extent that the Jews come closer to their spiritual root—a united people (“love your friend as yourself”) who shine an example of unity to the world (“a light unto nations”)—anti-Semitism lessens. Likewise, the more distant the Jews become from their root, anti-Semitism rises, reaching the genocidal extremes we have seen in the Holocaust and the pogroms.

Anti-Semitism depends on whether the Jews attain their spiritual root: to unite “as one man with one heart” and reveal that sublime connection to the world. The nations of the world sense that the Jews have a certain foundation, which the Jews are keeping away from them, and that this foundation holds the key for all nations’ happiness and prosperity. Thus, the nations of the world subconsciously hold a demand toward the Jewish people, that the Jews bring the abundance and truth that is locked away from them. The nations of the world think that the Jews know that they hold this key, but Jews themselves are completely unaware of it.

Therefore, in our era, the wisdom of Kabbalah carries an obligation to explain the role of the Jewish people, since a future of happiness and prosperity or a future of suffering and despair for everybody—Jews and non-Jews alike—rests in the hands of the Jews uniting and passing unity to the world.